Part of the tradition of Senior Day is the hope that an athlete's final home game will memorable.
It's fair to say Ryan Grimmett will look back fondly at his Senior Day.
The only active senior on the Concord Men's Soccer team scored the game first goal, and was instrumental in another, in the Mountain Lions' 4-1 non-conference victory over Virginia Intermont Wednesday afternoon at Anderson Field.
Concord kept the ball on VIC's half of the pitch for much of the first half, with Grimmett finding the net off a cross from Garith Duncan 15:30 into the game. It was Grimmett's third goal of the season.
At 35:33, Grimmett fired a shot on goal that Cobras goalkeeper Michel Warejko deflected but could not control. The ball rolled free toward the goal line, and Concord's Austen Barrett pounced on it, striking it home for his first goal of the year a 2-0 lead.
"It was his last game at home, and I'm sure he wanted to play well and make a bit of a statement," CU head coach
Steve Barrett said of Grimmett. "We were able to get the ball to him -- that's the thing. We were able to get the ball up front and give him a chance to make a play on it, and he did."
Concord outshot Intermont 14-5 in the first half and held its 2-0 lead at the break.
"Garith Duncan played well today," Barrett noted. "He ran hard and got deep. He made a good pass to set up that first goal -- a good, hard, low cross that wound up right where it needed to be."
The Cobras got their offense on track after intermission and pulled within 2-1 on Josh McMillion's goal, assisted by Logan Willard, at 74:10.
But Concord answered with a goal from Zach Piekarski, off an assist by Tad Binkley, at 81:34.
Piekarski would close out the scoring -- and the Cobras' faint comeback hopes -- when he headed home a high, bouncing ball to Warejko's left from 25 yards out. The back-to-back scores gave Piekarski a team-high seven goals this season.
"We scored our first three goals the same way, down the right side, not the middle" Barrett said. "We worked on that in practice. When we kept the ball in the middle, their defense was able to jam us up. Even at this point of the season, we're still working on things to make us better."
The Mountain Lions saluted Grimmett and fellow senior Joey Parks before the match. Parks has missed this season following knee surgery.
Concord finishes its home season 4-5-1.
The Mountain Lions close out the 2009 schedule with a non-conference match at Southern Virginia this Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 pm EDT in Buena Vista, VA.
